Frontline workers have been the focus of coronavirus stories since the beginning, and yet there are some essential frontline workers who are still left out of the conversation—social workers.
The COVID-19 pandemic has many of the issues that social workers are trained to address: poverty, food insecurity, homelessness, domestic violence, child abuse, and mental health issues, to the forefront.
The University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work has over 11,000 alumni working all over the world in various settings, and many have had to face additional challenges due to COVID-19. Some have taken a leading role in the fight against coronavirus, others have seen their jobs and methods change tremendously. We are proud to share their stories.
Hannah Damgaard
The graduating class of spring 2020 were already feeling the pressure of a changing employment landscape and uncertain job prospects. Hannah Damgaard (MSW 2020) was already working on the frontlines before she graduated. Working at the FamilyLinks residential facility in Penn Hills, Damgaard is caring for 13-21 year olds who have been diagnosed with coronavirus, but also have had contact with the foster system. She is taking care of them in the form of half hour checks, evaluations, taking temperatures, and preparing food. It isn’t exactly what she trained for, but social work has prepared her to be flexible and to “expect the unexpected.”
Cheryl Dennis
As a school social worker at Westinghouse High School, considered one of the most challenging schools in the Pittsburgh Public School system, Cheryl Dennis (MSW 2000) knew that she had to find a way to stay connected to her students once quarantine began. She says: “I started wondering about the kids I hadn’t heard from and started reaching out. Kids told me they ran out of food. This is typical in a school like Westinghouse and usually my colleagues and I feed them. I had to do something. In the first week, I bought and delivered $500 dollars in groceries. I made deliveries to three families. I found out that the Pittsburgh Smokehouse was giving away freezer meats and made arrangements to pick some up to share with our families, many of whom don’t have cars OR bus fare to pick up needed items. I made some more deliveries. While out and about, I scored some toilet paper and began including that in some of my deliveries. The worst part about the deliveries is I couldn’t see my kids! I was so close to them physically but couldn’t see and talk and check in with them.
I work well in crisis mode. There are immediate needs that can be met, I have enough experience in mental health to respond to what is needed. I spent two weeks in crisis mode, trusting that the relationships I had built with my students would be enough for them to reach out if they needed me. Most of them just needed information. Some knowledge to calm them. Some needed an outlet for emotions, someone other than their families who were in full crisis mode with lost jobs, being essential workers, and being faced with the decision to put their own lives at risk to continue to work.
The principals strategized a plan for reaching out to all of the students. Having guidance and a task to do really helped. I had a list of about 50 kids to reach out to. Out of those 50, about 5 answered the phone. Another 20 or so had disconnected or new phone numbers. I had to get creative. Texting worked best, followed by emailing. I even made some contacts in Facebook. Of the 50 kids that I called, one was homeless, one was displaced because of an exposure in their apartment building (they were living in a hotel), and many others were doing ok.
We have slowly started to ‘reopen’ as a school. Meetings and check-ins, expectations, waiting on word from the district, getting new guidance and changing courses. Trying to get my three kids up and running adds another layer to my job. It has been hard. In all of this, I received a text from the boy I mentioned earlier. He just said this,
“My mom is sick.”
Suddenly I couldn’t function. This whole virus thing became real to me, in those four words. My mom is sick. I’m a mom. I’m privileged to work in a place where I can be protected and sent home and paid. I have a mom. I could get sick. I didn’t have any parenting advice for him then. I asked him what kind of pizza he liked and what his brother would like. I ordered them a large pizza with pineapple, peppers, and bacon. I added cinnamon sticks and orange soda because I wanted him to know I love him. I shut off my phone. I realized in this that it is impossible to operate in crisis mode for long periods of time.
I now have daily office hours and kids come and check in. I am encouraging those students to reach out to friends and help them get online. I do A LOT of tech support in a day. Who knew tech support was also mental health support? This changed the way I think about social work. I can get a lot more accomplished for a lot more kids if I give the teachers the tools to operate effectively. I am getting back to the systems I worked so hard to put in place this year. Westinghouse has strong systems of support for students, namely Human Services Administration Organization (HSAO) and Wesley Family Services. Because of the work we put into building these systems, a lot of our most vulnerable kids are supported. We will be able to continue getting students the supports they need. Through all of this, I’ve found that the things that were working emerge from the smoke and rubble of a crisis. I have a whole new respect for my social work colleagues who push the systems theories and work. I am grateful to have had a strong social work education foundation so that I know enough about systems to have been able to build something that, without, would have made this a much more difficult time to cope with.”
Maizee Devlin
Maizee Devlin (MSW 2018) is a social worker in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit at UPMC Magee Women’s Hospital. Each day she starts her day being screened for COVID-19 symptoms upon entering work, her temperature is taken and she is given a mask to wear for that work day. She wears a mask all day while interacting with patients, families and other co-workers. UPMC has implemented visitation policies that protect patients, limiting the amount of support a family may be able to have at bedside. This has added the duty of the social worker to be an extra support person for family with limited support due to COVID-19 visitation restrictions. Social workers must check daily for updates regarding organizations and resources, and they make referrals to regularly to ensure the family’s needs are being met. When these organizations or resources have been limited or closed due to COVID-19, Devlin has been getting creative to best serve the families.
She says: “The primary challenges I am facing is the closure or limitations of programs our families utilize. This ranges from local county programs that may assist our families with transportation or mental health support to larger federally funded programs that may assist families with food for themselves and their baby. It is challenging families are not able to have visitors so we, as social workers, are providing extra support to families. This support ranges from daily bedside support to help cope with stress surrounding having a baby during a pandemic to someone experiencing a pregnancy loss or infant death and not knowing how to navigate planning a funeral during a pandemic. Every day is different so with that new challenges come.”
Devlin also believes her social work education helped prepare her in a way few others are trained. She explains: “While nurses and doctors are able to treat the physical signs and symptoms of COVID-19, social workers are able to address mental health symptoms that are coming secondary to a global pandemic. Working with pregnant people and families with new born babies we are able to address feelings of fear, worry, stress and anxiousness. We are helping families to grieve the loss of the idea they had of how the birth of their child would ‘look’ or be, which we often do in the NICU pre-COVID19. Social workers are able to stay up to date on organizations and resources that are closed or changing the way they operate during the pandemic, which allows us to provide our families with the most beneficial referrals.
I received a certificate in Integrated Health Care in addition to my Master’s Degree in Social Work with a focus on Direct Practice. COVID-19 is showing health care systems just how important integrated healthcare really is. We are having to adapt the way we interact with patients, whether it be from implementing telemedicine for virtual support groups or medical rounds to solidifying discharge plans with community providers telephonically which I believe the social work program, specifically the integrated healthcare track prepared me for.”
Ashlee Adams
Ashlee Adams (MSW 2016) worked at UPMC Presbyterian after graduating from Pitt Social Work, and then moved to NYC with my fiancé in early 2019. . She has been working at Mount Sinai Hospital as an inpatient social worker in Neurology/Stroke, and I also as a psychotherapist at Park Avenue Psychotherapy. Due to COVID-19, she is working remotely for both of her jobs. She explained: “It has been an adjustment for sure, however, after two weeks it became the new normal. The hospital was almost completely full with COVID patients. It was such a trying time, however, I can see the value in my work at the hospital. My clients at the practice have adjusted to tele-therapy beautifully and it has been very rewarding.”
Read about more Pitt Social Work alumni who are taking a leading role in the fight against COVID-19.